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The Kine Exakta 1936 to 1950
A short review of Ihagee’s most famous product, by Jim AndersonThis page is intended to be read as a continuous essay, so no page navigation is provided 
The story of the Kine Exakta begins in 1932 when the design engineer Karl Nüchterlein at the Ihagee Kamerawerk Steenbergen & Co., Dresden, was in the process of developing the standard Exakta of 4 x 6.5 cm format. That year was remarkable for the introduction of the Zeiss Contax and of Agfa's new 35mm cartridge. It was also the year in which, one might say, the Leica came of age, on the introduction of the Model II with a coupled rangefinder. It is not surprising, therefore, that Nüchterlein should have begun to plan a 35mm single-lens reflex in that year, and when the standard Exakta was put into production in 1933 to have commenced the development of the Kine Exakta. Preliminary designs were in fact on paper in June 1932. The world's first 35mm SLRCollectors have frequently debated whether or not this distinction should go to the Russian
Sport. Some years ago the opportunity arose for close enquiries to be made
in Dresden and in Leningrad and Moscow. In particular information provided by
the Polytechnical Museum, Moscow, states that a prototype 35mm SLR was made in
1934, and this was improved and developed into the camera that became the Sport.
“In 1937 it was perfected and brought into a state for production. Standard
production began at the end of 1937 or the beginning of 1938.”
Something uniqueWhat then was so special about this camera? The photographic world at that time was used to large reflex plate cameras in which the image could be scrutinised at the full size of the negative, and even the standard Exakta, though very much smaller than other reflexes, had this characteristic. Many were sceptical about the practical possibility of a reflex for such a small negative as 24 x 36 mm. To meet this the Kine Exakta focusing screen was of condenser form which not only added brilliance but also provided an image magnified two diameters, which was further increased by the magnifier. The screen was the subject of a patent dated 13 November 1934. The original round magnifier was quickly recognised as giving too limited a view and was replaced by the rectangular magnifier in December 1936. A remarkable shutterFrom the first the camera had the amazing 20-speed shutter, from 12 seconds to 1/1000th, with delayed action on fourteen of the speeds. It had lever-wind which was with simple logic put on the user's left, Ihagee believing that the importance of the focusing function demanded the use of the right hand. This winding advanced the film, wound the shutter, set the mirror, moved the exposure counter and prevented unintentional double exposures. The hood provided, in addition to the magnifier, a direct-vision viewfinder for eye-level use, and when closed it locked the shutter release. Other new featuresThe camera also introduced the concept of a shutter-release button placed on the front of the body, operating parallel to the optical axis. There was a built-in knife to cut the film, for quick development of short lengths. It was the first 35mm camera to have built-in flash synchronisation, and an accessory flash gun to take the Vacublitz bulb was marketed. Nüchterlein actually patented a system of TTL metering on 28 July 1939, but owing to his untimely death in the war it did not come into production. In 1958 Ihagee introduced a pentaprism with a built-in selenium meter and also an accessory TTL meter (which slightly extended the lens) for laboratory use. PrecisionFundamental to the whole design was the determination to build a camera characterised by
precision and versatility, which is why it became so extensively used for
medical and scientific purposes, and it must be a tribute to the designer that
it continued with only minor change until 1949. In this period it was
undoubtedly the most influential design in camera manufacture. It then gave
birth to improvements that made it even more versatile.
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